MORE THAN 250 classic bikes owned by Haslingden businessman Dale Winfield are being auctioned off.

Mr Winfield, who died in March, had spent the past 40 years building his collection.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The family have kept at least 50 bikes, including those ridden by world superbike champ Carl Fogarty, Eddie Kidd’s stunt bike, and one owned by the Hollywood actor Steve McQueen, which will remain on display at the Winfield store outside Haslingden.

When Mr Winfield died aged 70 he left instructions the rest of the bikes should be sold off in small lots.

Business colleague Geoff Holmes said: “We are disposing of them in the manner Mr Winfield wanted them to go, to real motorcycle enthusiasts so that they will be used.”

It is estimated the sales at Mathewson’s auction house in North Yorkshire will raise hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“He wanted them to go to enthusiasts. Dale was very much a self -made man, his idea was that he preferred them to go to people like himself who started off with one or two,” said Geoff.

Mr Winfield, who founded the outdoor chain, rode most of the bikes up until about 10 years before his death.

He had a lifelong love of motorcycles and was the first sponsor of world superbike star Carl Fogarty when he turned professional.

Mr Fogarty, who appeared in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, was among the hundreds of mourners who attended the funeral held in the Winfield retail outlet.

So far the most expensive bike sold was a Manx Norton which went for about £20,000.

Mr Winfield, a dad-of-five, died after a two-year battle with bowel cancer, leaving his wife June, 59, children Claire, Suzanne, Jodie, Janine and Joseph and grandchildren Poppy, Max, Troy and Reece.

  • The next auction of Mr Winfield’s bikes is on Saturday which will include an unusual 1938 Scot Squirrel.